Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Shooting,..?

In basketball, how should your shot be? Should it be high arc, or low arc?

And how should you grip the ball when shooting?|||First off, the grip. The best way to see what should be touching the basketball any time you are touching it (dribbling, passing, shooting, etc) is like this: put your hands together as though you are praying, then push your palms away from each other so that the heels of your hands are not touching. Anything left touching is all that should be touching the basketball. This is what coaches call the fingertips, even though it isn't just the very tip-end of your fingers.

There have been many studies done on arc for your shot. The optimum arc is to have the ball coming down to the basket in about a 30掳 angle. This is neither too high or too low. The key isn't really arc (although you don't want to get your arc too high or too low) but to put backspin on the ball as you release it. On a typical 15' shot, the ball should rotate from 3 to 7 times (5 ideally). Don't you watch it! Have a buddy watch it for you and count the rotations. When you shoot, you should NEVER watch the ball - ALWAYS keep your eye on the rim even after you release the ball. The reason for this is that you may end up looking for the ball too soon and the muscle groups flexing in your neck that move your head to look for the ball will affect your shot release. The reason you want backspin on the shot is because it will keep the shot "soft" when it gets to the rim and you have a better chance of having the ball bounce a few times on the rim before falling through.

One other thing - use the backboard when shooting inside and when shooting off either block. While I played center and power forward in college, I used the board on nearly all shots around the basket. My college coach (who retired with over 500 career wins) always told us "Either bank the ball in the basket or dunk it. Nothing else will do."|||Depends on from what range and the defense around you. If you're shooting from far away obviously it needs a higher arc. If there's a taller defender on you then the arc also needs to be pretty high. As for the grip, keep trying different styles until yo find one you're comfortable and successful with; there's no method of shooting that guarantees success nor is there any that promises failure. I mean look at Shawn Marion, he has an ugly looking shot but plays at an All-Star level.|||You should grip the ball with your fingertips, not with your palm. Also it should be in between, because if its too low it's gonna be short, to high may lead to a air-ball or hit nothing but the back of the rim|||The higher the shot the more velocity in descending. If the shot goes in dead-center, it doesn't matter. But if it's slightly off center and hits the rim, the faster its going, the harder it's going to ricochet. Does that make sense ? Not to many coaches who teach high arc. A higher arc shot is harder to control than a lower arc because it take more force to shoot that way. Does that make sense ? I hope so.

Too low is not good either, however, but it's better than too high. I use an analogy that seems to work. Did you ever watch a good darts player ? He uses a slight arc but gets the dart out in front of him with a snap of the wrist. You can use that same motion when you shoot a basketball. If I had to guess, I would say that 45-50 degrees would be the effective angle measured against the horizontal.

Let the ball rest comfortably in your hand WITHOUT resting in your palm. If your palm is one the ball, there is too much surface area in your hand that can misguide the flight of the ball. At the top of your jump, you want the ball to roll in the hand back toward the fingers. This is called the release of the ball. The intent is to shoot the ball off your fingertips. This may seem that you don't have proper control of the ball. And that is the case. But people who overcontrol the ball are typically lousy shooters. I have seen shooters go up for a shot, release the ball and have it roll off the fingertips and fall to the floor. This can happen and it did twice that I have seen. Each time, the player took his next shot the same way and made it.

There are a lot of things that can affect ones shooting. But good hand position and height of the arc are just 2 of them.|||You should have the ball on your fingerpads